Air cleaner



Sept. 1, 1925. 1,552,152

B. S. HARRISON AIR CLEANER und oct. a. 1924 Patented Sept. 1, 1925*.

UNITED STATES y 1,552,152 PATENT OFFICE.

:BUHT s. HARRISON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, As'sIGNOn To DRYING SYSTEMS,INC., or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION or ILLINOIS.l

AIR CLEANER.

T0 all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, BURT S. HARRISON, a citizen of the United States ofAmerica, and a resident of Chicago, county of Cook, and State ofIllinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Air Cleaners, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to air cleaners of the class utilizing an oiledsurface over which the vair to be cleaned is causedto pass. Thus,substantially all dirt, dust and lint is removed from the air byadhering to the oiled surfaces. To maintain the desired efficiency ofsuch air cleaners it is necessary in some manner to remove the dirtcollected bythe cleaner. One way of doing this is to cause the cleaningsurface to slowly but con- :tinuously move through a bath of oil. Suchconstruction necessitates a driving mecha- Cab nism, including areduction gearing adapted to bring about a great reduction in speed, anda comparatively costly construction of the cleaning element, forexample, a chain affair comprising numerous parallel corrugated linksand sprockets for driving `it through the oil and through the current ofair.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide an air cleaningdevice equal in efficiency to the above mentioned prior type of device,and utilizing the same eliicient cleaning principle, but avoiding thenecessity of being continuously driven, and other costly arrangementsincidental to the prior structure. v

The purpose of the invention may be ac lcomplished by a construction asillustrated in the drawing, in whichy Figure l is a view in frontelevation of the improved air cleaner.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on the line `2 2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a sectional detail taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2. f

The construction as illustrated is installed in an air conduit. Thisconduit may be the fresh air intake to a building or used forrecirculating reconditioned air whichis.

more or less continuously reused in order to save the heat therein. Theinvention is widely useful, one of the most important uses thereof beingfor cleaning the air used in cooling electrical generators, motors androtary transformers, it being necessary to prevent inliammable lint fromcollecting around such machines. The most dangerous dust is often toolight to be removed from the air by other devices than those employingsome means for causing the dust to adhere to a sticky surface. Thepresentinvention meets such requirements in a simple way, and is alsoequally as well suited for removing comparatively heavy particles ofdust from the air, such as the dust from grin-ding machines or explosiveparticles of carbon where coal is handled and treated, or otherdust-like substances which might be fioating in the air.

One preferred form of the construction comprises a rectangular casinghaving an air inlet and an air outlet which may be coaxial, and betweenwhich are arranged a,

large number of parallel plates extending in the direction of the aircurrent, but bent back and forth to provide a vplurality of zig-zagnarrow passageways for the air. At the bottom of the casing is an oilcontainer, and means are provided for pumping the oil from the oilcontainer to the top of the casing, where it is sprayed downwardly overthe dust eliminator plates. This spraying arrangement is only utilizedintermittently, that is, for a few minutes at the end of any period` ofhours, such as four, eight or twelve, at which time the air inlet andOu't-.

let openings of the apparatus are closed to the air conduit in order toprevent particles of the oil being blown along with the air. The merefilm of oil on the eliminator plates will not be blown off bythe airltraveling at the normal velocities in mostl air circulating circuits.'When the eliminator plates are washed clear of used oil and arere-surfaced with fresh oil, the used oil drops back into the oilcontainer where it is allowed to settle and is drained from time totime, and possibly re-ltered and used over again.

The construction as above referred to'is shown in the drawing asfollows:

The casing l is shown as passing through tially the size of the conduitat 3 and 4. Mounted within the casing l between the openings 3 and 4 isa large number of par- 4allel eliminator plates 5, preferably bent `anair conduit 2 with openings substanand to roll out alongthe oiledsurface thereof. Substantially all dust-like or linty impurities in theair adhere to the oil film on the eliminator. Under average working Aoil outv of the tank 10 at the bottom of casing 1., and discharge itthrough the conduit 11 to the spray 12 mounted in a housing 13 at thetop of the device. The dirt laden oil is thus washedxoff the eliminator5, and the plates of the eliminator are left with a fresh` charge of oilwhen the motor is stopped. The shutters 6 and 7 are operated by a commonhandle 14, connected tothe shutters by the bell cranks -15 and links16,' as shown in Fig. 1.

The operation of the device in respect to removing the 'dust from theair is much the same as with other apparatus of the same p eneral classin that the .air is divided into a plurality of separate more or lesssheet-like streams, which are causedA to travel back andvforth overawrinkled or corrugated oiled` surface, the dust adhering tosuchl surfacewhile the travel of the pure air is notmuch interfered with.

-from passmg In respect to Cleaning the 'surfaces of the elminator, theoperatlon isv different, as in the present case the eliminator isstationary and is bathed from time to time by an oil spray, at whichtime the louver arrangement is closed. A light or medium minerallubricatin oil is generally employed in most uses'o the apparatus, assuchoil is suiiiciently adhesive and is heavy enough not to be blownalong with the air.

Although but one specific embodiment of this invention has been hereinshown and described, it will be understood that numerous details of theconstruction shown may be altered or omitted without departing from thespii-Litof this invention as defined by the following claim.

I claim: .j

An air cleaning'device of the class -described, having an air passagewayextending therethrough, said air passage being dif vided by a pluralityof parallel bent-eliminator plates so formed as to divide a current ofair into a plurality of separate currents and Acause such separatecurrents to oscillate from side to side while passing the elimina-torplates, means for spraying said eliminator plates with a -dirt, collectthrough the spraying operation. Y

Signed at Chicago, this 2 day of Oct. 1924.

BURT S. HARRISON.

saidy device during ing liquid, and means for preventing air

